Hi Stefan,

Your point goes strait to mine, at least concerning DSP as a verb. You wrote:



But strictly speaking, a UART stream is an analog signal in a time domain. Think of one on an oscilloscope. And when you read it into the receiving unit it's turned back into a digital sequence. Is that not digital signal processing? Or do you have to subject it to some further processing, some algorithm, once it's in digital form? Even if that's the case, I've done just that plenty of times with nothing more than simple UART input.

Now I know, and you know and everyone knows, that's not what people mean when they use DSP as a verb. But why not? I'm not asking about the distinction. I'm asking about the difference. What is the definining property or characteristic that would make the process DSP?

Similarly, what is the defining characteristic or property that would make a piece of hardware a DSP (as in a noun). Does adding a MAC make an otherwise µ-processor/controller a DSP? Conversely, does the absence of a MAC then preclude a piece of hardware from being considered a DSP?

Joe